In County Donegal, Ireland, Sliabh Liag Distillers looks to tradition and its Irish heritage to create a modern whiskey with a traditional smokey profile.
Donegal’s first distillery in 175 years, Sliabh Liag was born out of founder James Doherty’s dream to return to his ancestral homeland.
He is now launching The Legendary Silkie Irish Whiskey Collection in America, and the inspiration for the Silkie whiskey came from memories of his early years in Donegal.
“In the mornings, I would head down to the kitchen, where beside the stove, grandad’s pipe would be sitting from the night before. Grandad was a wonderful man, tall, strong, hard-working, and generous, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Eleven-year-old me would tug on his pipe and I can viscerally remember the sweet tobacco, smokey and ashy aroma. It seemed to compliment the smell of the stove, the peat and my gran’s baking. Although it’s a morning moment, the whiskey is the taste of the night before.”
James, who also serves as the Vice Chair of the Irish Whiskey Association, recently visited with The Whiskey Wash about his revival of smokey whiskey and his modern approach to the Irish whiskey industry.
The Whiskey Wash: Tell us about the history and lore of Silkie.
James Doherty: “The Donegal peninsula is rich in legendary tales, and the story of the Silkie is a local favorite. Often reported in secluded coves along the wild Atlantic coast is the emergence of dark-haired maidens, shape shifters, who shed their seal-skin coats and win the hearts of local fishermen. The stories all have a melancholy ending with our Silkie finding the call of the sea too strong that she returns to the sea broken-hearted for the family she left behind. She can still be seen following fishing boats, looking for her one true love.”
TWW: What’s brought about the renaissance of Irish whiskey of late?
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James: “There has been a real confidence in Ireland for the past couple of decades, and this has shown through with an entrepreneurial spirit in a number of fields. Irish whiskey has had a long, often checkered, yet fascinating history, and its resurgence from the doldrums of the 20th century has been a long time coming. The entrepreneurial Irish spirit combined with a desire to bring back almost-lost styles of whiskey has seen the number of new distilleries rise to more than 40 in a short space of time. This can only be a good thing for drinkers of whiskey everywhere as Irish whiskey’s renown will now be for its rich diversity rather than the lighter easier styles of a decade ago.”
TWW: What do you remember of the folk tales of Sliabh Liag and where does that fit into your whiskey making heritage?
James: “We have always thought of ourselves as Seanchaí (shan-a key). The history and lore of an area was kept by the Seanchaí as part of an oral tradition, and even though I was raised in the UK, I would listen to my grandparents and great aunts and uncles who told stories of the Sliabh Liag area when we were growing up. Gran told me some of Grandad’s illicit distilling exploits and marrying what she told me to the legends and tales of the area is, for me, something of a ‘cultural terroir’ of the Donegal Gaeltacht that I believe we can bring to the world through our spirits brands.”
TWW: How do you lovingly recreate a memory in a distilled product?
James: “Memory is such a powerful thing, and for some visceral memories it’s not just visual, you remember who was with you, the emotions, the sounds and very importantly the smells. I associate the smell of pipe tobacco and the sweet rich smell of its smoke, with happiness, with my grandad, with Gran’s kitchen and with me illicitly sneaking down in the morning to pretend to be grown up and puff on Grandad’s now cold pipe. For Dark Silkie Whiskey, we took that moment, and starting with about 20 whiskies, we started to build the blend: A virgin cask grain whiskey to give the salted caramel, spice and roundness; a double distilled single malt sherry cask for the sweetness and innocence; a triple distilled heavily peated bourbon cask whiskey for the dry, ashy smoke and leather notes. Together, they bring a combination of flavors and aromas that takes me to that childhood memory. Similarly, with An Dúlamán Irish Maritime Gin, the memory is that fresh coastal breeze with a salty tang in the air.”
TWW: What makes your whiskey smokey and smooth?
James: “The greatest challenge when blending any whiskey is finding the balance of different flavor characteristics singing perfectly together. We don’t really target smoothness per se, as the qualities of the whiskeys we use are all intrinsically smooth. We are passionate, though, about making soft spirits and look for whiskies that when we put them together have a signature softness in your mouth. We use a variety of different whiskies in each of our blends – the full list can be seen on our website, we’re very transparent like that – and the source of the smoke in each is a highly peated malted barley (55ppm), triple distilled, matured in American Oak ex bourbon casks. The ripple distilling of the peated malts seems to give us a lovely dry smokey aroma and taste and not that TCP note that so many find offputting.”
TWW: What are some of the trends you’ve noticed in the whiskey industry, particularly Irish whiskey?
James: “It’s a really interesting time in Irish whiskey with the industry at once having the oldest distilling history and now the youngest group of distillers. The first trend for us newbies has been the advance of cask driven whiskeys – driven by sourced whiskeys and a need to get things to market reasonably quick. The second and the one that excites me most is a return to spirit-driven styles based on a distillery’s core whiskey style. This takes more time because we have to lay the whiskey down for at least three years, but we can already see the new wave of distillers returning to whiskey styles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries like ourselves with the peated Donegal style. Finally, I would say I am intrigued by what happens over the next 20 years. Will we see a trend to regional styles? It certainly won’t be as structured as it is for single malt Scotch, but I would hope we evolve to discrete styles for areas like our peated Ulster Style. It’s a super exciting time for the category.”
TWW: What’s next for Sliabh Liag Distillers in the next coming months, years?
James: “Our new distillery in Ardara is making some incredible, heavily-peated, new-make spirit, both single malt and pot still styles. All of the pot still spirit is currently non-compliant with the Technical File legislation as we use 20 percent malted peated oats, so Donegal continues to be a place apart! At least for now, we’re hoping rules will change. I have Grandad’s Poitín recipe to bring back which will be fun, and we have an exclusive 600 casks that we’re making available for people to buy for themselves and be part of the Seanchaí (storytellers) of the Sliabh Liag Distillers story. With the doors to the distillery opening to the public this summer, they’ll be able to come and visit their cask. Indeed, we hope many visitors to our extraordinary corner of Ireland will pay us a visit and see all the exciting things we’re up to in reclaiming the distilling heritage of Donegal.”
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